We always support Malaysian brands and once in awhile, Star2 features a selection of local designers or brands that we think the readers would find interesting.

We don’t need to tell you about the popularity of Islamic fashion, where even international designers and brands are coming out with modest wear collections.

And it seems like everyone, be it celebrities, bloggers or just your every day hijabista has a muslimah clothing or headscarves line.

When you talk of Muslimah fashion, it doesn’t necessarily mean just jubahs and abayas. It can also mean a more “modest” or rather, a more conservative look.

With Ramadan around the corner and Hari Raya just over a month away, it’s the perfect time to look at some local Muslimah clothing brands.

The brands featured here have an array of different clothing, ranging from the kind of clothes you could also get from other fashion brands to jubahs and abayas.

Haya by Hidaya

Haya by Hidaya featured abayas that is targeted towards a younger market. Photo: Haya by Hidaya

This is the more affordable and youthful subline of Hidaya International. While Hidaya abayas are normally made to order and cater to a niche market made up of an exclusive clientele, this year the brand has developed a line to appeal to the masses exclusively during the Raya period. It is only available on fashionvalet.com. and will be released in two batches, May 18 and June 1. “Haya” incidentally is an Arabic word which means shyness, respectability and modesty.

As its name says, this label is not just about dressing up but also beautiful dresses. In a press release, the brand says they have “revolutionised everyday Muslim fashion by replacing typical loose, one-cut look to tailored-fit wear”. The designs are structured but feminine, sleek and functional. The LtD woman is very much about self-discovery and empowerment through the Quran.

Photo: Love To Dress

Nafyana

With three lines – ready-to-wear line, hijab collection and custom made service, it is supposed to be a bridge between high street and modest fashion. The brand name is actually a combination of the founder and her mother’s name. The RTW, while modest, is contemporary, minimalist, edgy and feminine. The designs are mainly classic pieces and wardrobe essentials. Nafyana Hijabis have scarves, shawls and inners which range from the more basic designs to embellished ones. For the custom made, you can make pretty much anything from traditional and modern to bridal wear.

Rina Salleh

This label features a wide range of Muslimah looks from classic to contemporary and casual to elegant. Apart from jubahs, they also have skirts, blouses, scarves and apparel for nursing mums and wudhu-friendly clothes.

The latter term means clothing that is also suitable for prayers; for example, long sleeves may have zips to make it loose.

Do you have a particular local designer or brand that you think we should feature? Drop us a line and tell us why at star2@thestar.com.my.

We always support Malaysian brands and once in awhile, Star2 features a selection of local designers or brands that we think the readers would find interesting.

We don’t need to tell you about the popularity of Islamic fashion, where even international designers and brands are coming out with modest wear collections.

And it seems like everyone, be it celebrities, bloggers or just your every day hijabista has a muslimah clothing or headscarves line.

When you talk of Muslimah fashion, it doesn’t necessarily mean just jubahs and abayas. It can also mean a more “modest” or rather, a more conservative look.

With Ramadan around the corner and Hari Raya just over a month away, it’s the perfect time to look at some local Muslimah clothing brands.

The brands featured here have an array of different clothing, ranging from the kind of clothes you could also get from other fashion brands to jubahs and abayas.

Haya by Hidaya

Haya by Hidaya featured abayas that is targeted towards a younger market. Photo: Haya by Hidaya

This is the more affordable and youthful subline of Hidaya International. While Hidaya abayas are normally made to order and cater to a niche market made up of an exclusive clientele, this year the brand has developed a line to appeal to the masses exclusively during the Raya period. It is only available on fashionvalet.com. and will be released in two batches, May 18 and June 1. “Haya” incidentally is an Arabic word which means shyness, respectability and modesty.

As its name says, this label is not just about dressing up but also beautiful dresses. In a press release, the brand says they have “revolutionised everyday Muslim fashion by replacing typical loose, one-cut look to tailored-fit wear”. The designs are structured but feminine, sleek and functional. The LtD woman is very much about self-discovery and empowerment through the Quran.

Photo: Love To Dress

Nafyana

With three lines – ready-to-wear line, hijab collection and custom made service, it is supposed to be a bridge between high street and modest fashion. The brand name is actually a combination of the founder and her mother’s name. The RTW, while modest, is contemporary, minimalist, edgy and feminine. The designs are mainly classic pieces and wardrobe essentials. Nafyana Hijabis have scarves, shawls and inners which range from the more basic designs to embellished ones. For the custom made, you can make pretty much anything from traditional and modern to bridal wear.

Rina Salleh

This label features a wide range of Muslimah looks from classic to contemporary and casual to elegant. Apart from jubahs, they also have skirts, blouses, scarves and apparel for nursing mums and wudhu-friendly clothes.

The latter term means clothing that is also suitable for prayers; for example, long sleeves may have zips to make it loose.

Do you have a particular local designer or brand that you think we should feature? Drop us a line and tell us why at star2@thestar.com.my.

Canadian pop star Justin Bieber and the co-writers of his 2015 smash hit Sorry are being sued for allegedly stealing a vocal riff from another artist who said she used it on her own song a year earlier.

In a complaint made public on Thursday, Casey Dienel, an indie artist who performs under the name White Hinterland, accused Bieber of infringing her copyright to the song Ring the Bell by using a “virtually identical” riff without permission.

Among the other defendants are the producer Skrillex and Vivendi’s Universal Music Group. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Nashville.

Spokespeople for Bieber, Skrillex and Universal had no immediate comment or did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Dienel said: “Sorry, which appears on Bieber’s album Purpose and has more than 1.42 billion YouTube views, adopted the “specific and unique characteristics of the female vocal riff” from her song, sampling it for the first eight seconds of Sorry and several times thereafter.”

She said even The New York Times Magazine noted the riff’s distinctiveness, when it praised Bieber’s song for its “cooing arpeggio that feels like a gentle breeze on your brain” in a March 13 article titled 25 Songs That Tell Us Where Music Is Going. Bieber’s song ranked No. 1.

Dienel also said she reached out to Bieber to discuss a resolution, but he “ignored” her claims and refused to talk.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, including from profits generated by Sorry. Dienel’s Ring the Bell appeared on White Hinterland’s album Baby.

It is common for well-known singers to be accused of stealing song ideas from other composers.

Kanye West was sued last week for allegedly taking part of his 2013 song New Slaves from a 1969 song by a Hungarian rock singer. Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Jimmy Page face a June 14 trial over whether they stole opening chords for their 1971 song Stairway to Heaven from a 1967 instrumental. – Reuters

Listen to White Hinterland’s Ring The Bell, released in 2014, and compare it to Bieber’s Sorry. Vote to tell us who do you think should be saying sorry…

The Temper Trap lead singer is, of course, talking about the band’s biggest hit, Sweet Disposition, which he admits to being a little sick of hearing these days.

“Yeah, I feel that way sometimes. I don’t listen to it at home, and if it’s playing in a shop, I’ll walk straight out. But I’m not sick of playing the song live, because the energy and the audiences’ reaction to it is so wonderful,” he said, adding that he was not worried that the song would be the only one that defines the band.

“You gotta keep making music and not worry about that stuff. We’ll keep writing songs, and maybe one day we’ll write something that will surpass it.”

An achingly beautiful rock ballad, Sweet Disposition is the Australian band’s most recognisable hit yet, and was voted Most Popular Australian Single at the 2010 Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Music Awards.

The song was included in the band’s debut album, 2009’s Conditions, which reached the Top 10 of the ARIA album charts. Its eponymous second album – released in 2012 – did even better, reaching No. 1 in Australia, and featured hit single Trembling Hands.

Comprising Indonesian-born lead singer Mandagi, bassist Jonathon Aherne, drummer Toby Dundas, and keyboardist/guitarist Joseph Greer, The Temper Trap will be releasing its new album, Thick As Thieves in June, and will be playing at the Good Vibes Festival 2016 which is taking at The Ranch, Genting Highlands, on Aug 12 and 13.

During a phone interview from Tokyo, Japan where the band is currently on tour, Mandagi said fans can expect a different set and vibe from its last performance in Malaysia at the 2013 Future Music Festival.

“It’s fun for us as a band to be able to play something different for a change. There will be a healhty dose of new songs, and also a mix of old songs.

“By that time, our new record will be out, so hopefully our fans will be well acquainted with those songs,” Mandagi said, adding that he loves playing in Asia because of the exotic vibe in those countries.

“Playing in London or Los Angeles or Manchester or Germany is great, but they don’t feel exotic like in Malaysia, Tokyo or anywhere else in Asia.”

Being Indonesian by birth, Mandagi also feels an affinity with Asia, and going back to Indonesia to perform always feels like a homecoming gig for him. “Even when we play in Singapore or Malaysia, all the Indonesian fans will come by the boatload to watch us. It’s as close to home as I can get!”

On the band’s upcoming new album, Mandagi reckons that Thick As Thieves will not be too different from its previous releases. “It’s definitely still got that Temper Trap sound. I’d say it’s a combination between the first and second albums, except there’s a lot more guitar in this one, and the tempo is faster in general.”

He also added that there’s always pressure to replicate the success of Temper Trap’s albums, but not from within the band.

“There’s pressure from my parents, who ask, ‘Why don’t you write a song like this?’ There’s pressure from the record label asking you for a hit radio single, and there’s pressure from journalists asking about whether we feel pressure!” he said with a laugh.

“It’s part and parcel of having a sucessful song and album – people just want you to repeat it all the time. But we can’t do that, because it has to be fun and enjoyable for us as well. We just have to keep our head down, block out the extrneal voices, expand, take a few risks, and keep doing what we do.”

The Good Vibes Festival will also feature performances by English rock band The 1975, Irish indie trio Two Door Cinema Club, electro pop duo Purity Ring as well as local artistes such as Seven Collar T-Shirt, Froya, and Juno and Hanna. Tickets are on sale now at www.boxtix.asia. For more information, check out http://ift.tt/24QR8Nz.

Jamie Lawson certainly wasn’t expecting that. After being in the business almost a decade and enjoying moderate success, his career suddenly took off last year when he became the first artiste to sign on to Ed Sheeran’s record label, Gingerbread Man Records.

All of a sudden, everyone knew Lawson’s name; his fourth, self-titled album debut at No. 1 on the British album charts, his song Wasn’t Expecting That became a huge hit and he was opening shows for the likes of Sheeran and One Direction.

Prior to Jamie Lawson, the singer had released three albums – 2006’s Last Night Stars, 2010’s The Pull Of The Moon, and Wasn’t Expecting That in 2011.

The title track from that third album was already a hit before he re-released it last year after signing to Ginger­bread Man Records, but only in Ireland, strangely enough.

The 40-year-old English singer-songwriter was in Singapore recently to promote the new album, and took time off his busy schedule for a phone interview with Star2.

“I had no idea my music was being listened to over here. It’s crazy, really. It’s heartwarming to know that my music has reached so far from where it was originally from,” Lawson said.

1. You were the first artiste to be signed by Ed Sheeran. How did that change your life and career?

Everything changed … dramatically! Almost overnight, I was suddenly very busy, and I went from singing for myself to singing at big shows, opening for One Direction and Ed Sheeran. It’s been pretty amazing so far.

When someone as big as Ed decides to put a record out, it gets a lot of attention. It was a massive compliment that he thought my songs were good enough to withstand all that attention. It means that everything I had been doing was working towards this moment.

I’m glad I kept going – it’s so easy to give up at times. I guess I just needed that big break … I just didn’t know it would come through a global superstar!

Jamie Lawson is signed to Ed Sheeran’s record label. Photo: Warner Music

2. What do you think Sheeran saw in you?

He had known about me for years, and told me that he did not understand why no one had done it. He was almost forced to sign me! (laughs)

I guess Ed had a similar background in traditional and folk songs, and he liked what I had, and thought it should be out there.

3. Before joining Gingerbread Records, what was the biggest challenge in terms of developing your career?

It was a real challenge. On the road to making this record, I had all these songs, but I still had to find someone who would put money into it, and that’s a real challenge when you don’t have a label.

4. Did he have any advice or tips on what you needed to do to be successful?

He just told me to do what I was already doing, and that it was going to work. We just had to get it out to other people.

That was a real confidence booster – it showed that I was already doing the right thing, and all I needed was for my music to reach people.

5. What was the inspiration for your songs?

Inspiration for me comes from anywhere. It could be from a conversation I had, or overheard while walking down the street. The Only Conclusion came from an episode of The Big Bang Theory!

Wasn’t Expecting That was from a conversation I heard and I immediately thought it would be a great title for a song. I got the tempo of the song straight away and wrote it the next day.

Thirty four years after landing in the South of France with E.T., Steven Spielberg returns to the Cannes Film Festival with The BFG, based on the Roald Dahl book published in 1982. (Coincidentally, that’s the same year E.T. came out.)

However, the Disney blockbuster about a big friendly giant (Mark Rylance via a motion capture performance) who befriends a young girl – newcomer Ruby Barnhill – was met with tepid applause at the recent Cannes press screening, with some complaining that it didn’t have enough crossover appeal for adults. The BFG opens in the US on July 20.

Here are five things Variety learned from a press conference with Spielberg and his cast.

1. The BFG was first optioned for the screen in 1993

“It’s been a long journey,” said Spielberg’s producer Frank Marshall who worked on the film with Kathleen Kennedy. The late screenwriter Melissa Mathison (E.T.) came on board first, after getting called by Kennedy for rewrites for Hayao Miyazaki’s 2008 Ponyo. Spielberg was familiar with the book by reading it to his seven children as they grew up, often acting out the voice of the BFG out loud to them.

“When I heard Kathy had hired Melissa to adapt the book, I think at that moment there was a little voice whispering in my ear,” Spielberg said. “What if this came together and I got to be the director? It was a wonderful reunion and a bittersweet time for us,” he said. (Matthison died last year.)

2. Spielberg expanded Dahl’s story with the blessing of his estate

The beloved author passed away in 1990 – hating every Hollywood adaptation ever made from one of his books, including Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Although the movie takes significant liberties from the book (including watering down some of the scarier moments with the evil children-eating giants), Spielberg said the family signed off. “We just added a little more plot to the movie version of the book, which we did with compliance and cooperation of the entire Dahl estate,” Spielberg said. “They read every draft that we developed. We had a great relationship.”

3. Spielberg deflected a question about Dahl’s ant-Semitic views

“I wasn’t aware of any of Roald Dahl’s personal stories,” said the director of Schindler’s List. “I was focused on the story he wrote. I had no idea of anything that reportedly was assigned to him, that he might have said. This is a story about embracing our differences and the values of the book and the values of the film. Those are the values I want to impart in telling the story.”

4. Spielberg admitted to a bromance with Mark Rylance

This is the second collaboration between the actor and director, after last year’s Bridge Of Spies and they have another project on the way (2017’s Dunkirk). Spielberg said that Rylance (who based the BFG on “people who worked in my grandfather’s garden in Kent”) is the rare actor that he actually considers a real-life BFF.

“I feel very lucky that I got to meet Mark, and even luckier that we became friends,” Spielberg said. “I have a lot of acquaintances (over) 44 years of directing television and film. I haven’t brought a lot of people in my life from the movies.” As Spielberg was saying this, Rylance gave the director a gentle pat on the shoulder.

5. Spielberg calls The BFG an epic love story

“It’s a love that children have for their grandparents,” and grandparents have for their children, he said of the BFG’s affection for Sophie. “I think this is the closest I’ve come to telling a love story.”

Dick Wolf has set the fourth leg of his Chicago table with NBC’s order for Chicago Justice, the third spinoff of the procedural franchise that bowed in 2012 with Chicago Fire.

The Chicago Justice pick up means that the Wolf Entertainment banner will produce some 110 hours of scripted drama for NBC in the coming season, with 22 episodes a piece for the Chicago quartet plus the workhorse Law & Order: SVU. In addition, NBC has a backdoor pilot for an unscripted series, Law & Order: You The Jury, planned to air as a special. And there’s another extension of the Law & Order brand in the works as a miniseries, Law & Order: True Crime, which will revisit the sordid story of the murderous Menendez brothers.

Having five scripted drama series on NBC is a personal best for Wolf. In the 2005-06 season he had four shows on the network: The mothership Law & Order, plus SVU, Criminal Intent and the one-season-and-out Law & Order: Trial By Jury.

Jerry Bruckheimer still holds the producer’s record for most scripted series in a single season. His prolific shop fielded 10 dramas in the 2005-06 season, anchored by the CSI franchise (which is now out of active production for the first time since 2000 with CBS’ recent cancellation of CSI: Cyber).

But the primetime landscape has changed enormously in the past decade. Wolf’s achievement with the Chicago shows is notable because of the shrinking supply of sturdy procedurals that are a vital part of the vertebrae of any network schedule – shows that can run the marathon of 22 (or more) episodes a season and repeat well (at least decently) when need be.

Chicago Fire ranks as NBC’s second most-watched scripted series this season in the US, behind Blindspot. This season’s new addition, Chicago Med, has averaged 10.7 million viewers in the US and 2.6 in the demo, followed by Chicago P.D. with 10.5 million viewers.

By any measure, those are impressive numbers in a world of 400-plus scripted series, and the Chicago shows have been a crucial part of NBC’s rebound to No.1 in adults 18-49 during the past three seasons. Wolf, who was down to one primetime drama in 2011 after Criminal Intent was cancelled, is once again a force to be reckoned with at NBC.

“I have ludicrously high hopes that (the Chicago shows) will be on for a long time because they have settled in,” Wolf said in January.

From the start, the Chicago shows were conceived in an unusually expansive way, designed to function as modular elements of a single world. There’s much more emphasis on integrating characters and themes than was ever woven in to the Law & Order world.

Most of the Chicago episodes end with some of their hard-working firefighters, cops, doctors and nurses (and soon lawyers and such) mingling at the city’s famed Molly’s watering hole. That’s not by accident. Wolf envisions a time when the shows run as one large block in syndication. He has also talked about wanting to submit the shows en masse for industry awards such as the SAG Awards.

“Nobody else is making television like this,” Wolf said in January.

Wolf acknowledges that the material mined on the Chicago shows is generally less heady than the Law & Order franchise at its best. The formula that caught fire for Chicago Fire is pretty simple: “Hot guys who take their shirts off a lot,” he quipped. But in this day and age, 30 million-plus viewers a week (more than half of whom watch the shows on a time-shifted basis) can’t be wrong.

Cantopop legend George Lam is celebrating 40 years in the music industry with a world tour that will come to the Arena of Stars in Genting Highlands on Sept 17.

At 68, Lam continues to wow audiences with his power-packed vocals. He kick-started his anniversary tour at the Hong Kong Coliseum in January this year, selling out all four nights.

To commemorate his four decades in the music industry, the veteran singer-songwriter even recorded a new concert theme song, which is a medley of his popular hits in the vein of his much-loved “10 minutes, 12 inches”.

For the past four decades, Lam and his songs have remained popular in Hong Kong and he has won several awards at the RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards. In 1994, in recognition of his numerous contributions to the music scene, Lam was awarded the Golden Needle Award, the highest form of recognition in the Hong Kong music industry.

Apart from an illustrious singing career, Lam is also a popular actor who has starred in numerous films and TV series; he received a nod for Best Actor at the 2nd Hong Kong Film Awards for Boat People (1982).

Besides Malaysia, Lam plans to take his anniversary tour to Singapore, America, Canada, and Macau.

Organised by Star Planet, the George Lam 40th Anniversary Live in Malaysia 2016 will be held at Arena of Stars, Genting Highlands on Sept 17 at 8.30pm.

At the end of the second season of Penny Dreadful, the show’s characters were scattered to the four winds, having vanquished one formidable foe but at great personal cost. In the third season premiere of the show, the Victorian characters at the heart of the drama began to take their first steps out of self-imposed isolation.

But as creator John Logan explained in a recent interview, Penny Dreadful’s protagonists still have a long way to go before they’re reunited and able to take on the grave new challenges they’ll face this year. Vanessa Ives (Eva Green), Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett) and Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton) began the new season on separate continents, two of them far from their usual London haunts. The Creature (Rory Kinnear) was shivering in the Arctic, and his creator, Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway), was suffering the after-effects of yet another relationship gone wrong, but his descent into self-pity was interrupted by an old friend from medical school, Dr Jekyll (Shazad Latif).

Kaetenay (Studi, left) goes on an important quest to save his son Ethan (Hartnett).

Jekyll is just one of a number of new characters introduced this season; others include Dr Sweet (Christian Camargo), Dr Seward (Patti LuPone) and Kaetenay (Wes Studi). LuPone’s return is particularly exciting, given that the Season Two episode featuring the actress was one of the drama’s most acclaimed high points.

Without giving away too much, Logan hints at the challenges old and new characters will face this season, talks about what the new relationships and the presence of Dr Seward will bring, and how the show’s central figure, Vanessa, will handle the devastating loss of faith she experienced at the end of last season.

What’s the idea animating this season and what’s different about what you’re doing this year?

As we look at our family, at the end of last season, we scattered them. In the first episode, we’re in London, Africa, the New Mexico Territory and the Arctic. That’s all in the first hour. All the characters have to go on a very personal journey, and what they come to realise is that only by coming together in certain ways and in certain combinations can they find any kind of peace.

Obviously you’ve had multiple story lines in other seasons, but this seemed like the most Penny Dreadful has ever had.

This is multiple stories on steroids. I think that’s fun. The series has gotten broader and broader every season and I think that’s correct. If it was still the same five people in a room in Victorian London, you’d want to kill yourself. I certainly didn’t want to write the same show year after year, with the central characters talking in the great room about evil. I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to have bigger themes, bigger stories.

Part of what helped me do that this season was having a lot of new characters. We’ve got Patti LuPone, who plays Dr Seward, Dr Jekyll, Keatenay, and Dr Sweet, who’s involved in Vanessa’s storyline – all those new characters start thickening the broth, if you will. And by Season Three, I think we want a thick broth.

Creator-writer Logan reintroduces actress LuPone in the third season as a totally new character.

The different characters add different shadings, different notes on the scale, if you will. As do the different actors. When you see Wes Studi and Tim Dalton are fantastic together and there’s a chemistry there, seeing where the chemistry connects between the actors and the characters, is really rewarding.

And the important thing to me, as I planned the first three seasons of the show, was weaving back into the Dracula story. We did that to some degree in Season One, with Mina Harker, Sir Malcolm’s daughter, and then we get back into it big time in Season Three. It’s fun, and challenging.

That was an unexpected reveal at the end of the first episode, but it does draw on one of the show’s themes, that these things are constants. These dangers, these demons, the issue the characters face on their moral journeys – they don’t just go away. You don’t solve them, because they’re eternal.

That’s exactly right. You look at Vanessa, who is obviously for me the beating heart of the series – the woman is tormented from without and within. From within, it’s part of a journey of faith, and losing her faith and that leaving her in a wasteland of an existence, until she tries to drag herself out of it.

But also, from without, she was tormented by Satan last season, Dracula in the first season, and those things don’t go away.

Your inner demons and outer demons are still there until you find finally face them in some way. I always wanted this season to be about Vanessa and Ethan facing their most difficult challenges. Ethan goes back home into the crucible of his past, his father, what made him a werewolf, why he is the way he is. With Vanessa, it’s (an exploration of) the darkness around her.

Vanessa has lost her faith, but some part of her journey seems to be about gaining faith in herself. And those two things don’t necessarily have to be in opposition to each other.

That’s right. (At one point in the first episode, she talks about) finding hope, hope for all the demons that are out there. She had a very significant line – I can’t remember the actual words, but she said something like, “I’ve lost a lot, I’ve lost Ethan, I’ve lost my faith, but something yet remains. I remain.” That is very important.

Penny Dreadful Season Three kicks off with Vanessa (Green, right) isolating herself, only to find out she had to reach out for some kind of connection.

And when we get to episode four this season, which is a very huge episode that I’m incredibly proud of, that becomes the all-important theme for Vanessa. And that is, you may have lost your faith, but you still have yourself, and can you empower yourself? That really is part of her journey this season. And if you have an actress like Eva, you can really go to these dense, philosophical, complicated, emotional places, and she’ll go there happily with you.

With Helen McCrory, you brought her on for a short time in Season One, knowing she’d come back and have much more to do in Season Two as Evelyn Poole. Was it a similar thing with the Cut Wife, Joan Clayton, in Season Two? Did you know that you’d be bringing Patti LuPone back?

I wish I were that clever. I’ve known Patti forever, and I love her to pieces. We were working on The Cut Wife episode, and I saw the chemistry she had with Eva, the chemistry those characters had together. I knew that this season, Vanessa was going to need a very strong ally in Dr Seward. And I thought, look at the connection that was established (in The Cut Wife).

The idea of making Patti LuPone Dr Seward and (to hint at the idea that she had a connection to) Joan Clayton seemed like a great way to do it. It was partly about having an actress I really love in Dublin for six months, but also it was about giving Vanessa a strong ally this season, especially when she doesn’t have Ethan or Dr Frankenstein at her side.

Dr Seward said that Clayton is her family name. Are we to understand that she’s the same person, or from the same family line? Do you want to keep that somewhat vague?

I’m deliberately dancing around that question. Whether they acknowledge this is an actual reincarnation of that character or not, Vanessa and Dr Seward quickly fall into a relationship of trust and love, exactly as Vanessa and Joan Clayton did. There’s parallel emotionally in the relationship, even if they might define it differently.

It’s all about strong women, for me, this show, in spite of all the incredible male characters there are. The core is always going to be a woman, and to have another strong female character in the show – (it goes to) why I started writing it in the first place.

I think The Cut Wife episode is the best episode the show has ever done. The intensity of it was so powerful, and the focus on the two of them in this remote place made it so memorable. Will you do anything like that again this season?

It’s episode four. The Cut Wife is my favourite episode of the series so far. If I had to be judged by a single episode of the first two seasons of Penny Dreadful, that’s the one I would pick. It’s very emotional, very true and there’s barely a jot of the supernatural in it. In episode four this season, it’s very similar, but perhaps even more so. You’ll be very surprised by it, and I hope delighted. It is a Vanessa-centric episode.

Dorian and Lily spend their days dancing and recruiting female soldiers for a war against injustices.

Last season you had McCrory’s character as the major antagonist. Is it another situation this year where everyone has to come together to fight a common foe, or are there multiple threats to the group or individuals?

Happily, this season, it’s both. There are individual demons, both psychological and real, and then they do all have to come together. The joy of it is having all the characters across the world is finding the compulsion that brings them back together.

At the end of the day, I don’t want to see the Enterprise without Kirk, Spock and McCoy on the bridge, you know? – Reuters

Penny Dreadful Season Three airs every Monday at 11pm on FX HD (Astro Ch 726).

When the miniseries Roots aired in the United States in 1977, it showed the ugly truth of oppression borne from another atrocity – slavery.

Based on Alex Haley’s 1976 novel, it traces the author’s lineage from his ancestor, who was taken from West Africa and shipped to the US as a slave.

Watched by millions of Americans then, it started a conversation about the origins of many African-Americans.

Now, at a time when issues such as Black Lives Matter, racial profiling and ensuring minority voices are heard, History Channel is retelling Roots for a new generation of audience.

To be aired over four consecutive nights, starting May 31, the eight-hour series tells the life of Kunta Kinte (Malachi Kirby) and his legacy.

As the series progresses, audience will see the different stages of Kunta’s life – a teenager shipped with 140 others as cargo to the US who ends up working at a plantation where he is cruelly treated; as a father who teaches his daughter Kizzy (Anika Noni Rose) in the ways of his people; and as a grandfather still yearning for that elusive freedom.

The family saga continues with Kizzy – a woman born into slavery who, like her father, has to endure many hardships including being raped by a white farmer (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) to whom she’s sold to, resulting in a son, George (Rege-Jean Page).

We then become witness to George’s life, a son of a slave owner who struggles between his mother’s family traditions and wanting to impress his father.

George (Page) begins to take interest on his father’s (Meyers) hobby.

Actor Page, who plays George in the series, shared in a telephone interview from Los Angeles that he has seen the original mini-series a couple of times while growing up.

“I can’t remember who it was, probably an aunt or an uncle or my parents, who said, ‘You need to know this.’ So I kind of sat and watched it as a kid. I watched it again as a teenager and at school. And just before I got the job, I watched it again,” he recalled.

Each time he watched the series, Page said he gleaned new things. “You gain an understanding of why the world is the way it is. Roots is absolutely intrinsic with American identity, and is very much part of the formation of America, the nation and the people.

“It’s about how a lot of us got there and how we dealt with each other once we got here. So, that strikes me. And it has filled in a lot of blanks why people see each other the way they do today.

“The story has a lot that echoes in the modern world and modern politics, and modern trials and tribulation that people go through on a daily basis, across the world and not just America.”

Page – whose mother is Zimbabwean and father is British – grew up in Zimbabwe, South Africa, and has lived in various part of the world including the United States, Europe and England.

When asked how his own upbringing and the fact that he’s bi-racial informed him of this struggle, the actor said: “I think growing up outside of these major powerhouses like London, New York or LA, it gives you a different perspective of the world.

“In big cities, they make decisions that have echoes to the rest of us and it’s very useful to see it from outside before you come in dabbling in the middle. So it was very useful growing up with that sense.

“Also growing up with more than one identity, and in a nation that is freshly post-apartheid – Zimbabwe is one of the youngest countries in the world (it was founded in 1980) – you feel the racial tension very, very freshly.

“And belonging, personally, to both sides to what used to be a very black and white line … you learn to observe people in a different way. You belong to both camps and you belong to neither – it’s an extraordinary existence and one I am still trying to figure out.”

One thing he has got figured out is his career as an actor. When he settled down in London, he joined the National Youth Theatre and trained at the Drama Centre London, graduating in 2013.

Last year, he starred with Jonathan Pryce in Shakespeare’s Globe production of Merchant Of Venice and was a regular in the final season of BBC series Waterloo Road.

After Roots, he can be seen as the male lead in the upcoming ABC series Spark, which also stars Lena Olin.

He mentioned that he is both excited and scared about landing the lead role in Spark: “But honestly I’ve set aside my feelings on this, I do the work and I try to put something good out for the world. There’s enough bad things in the world, so I want to put out something of quality.

“And beyond that, it’s not about me. It’s about the story and giving something to the people that would enrich their lives.”

No doubt, he is going to achieve just that with Roots. Since the series is aired on History, the channel has poured in tremendous production value hiring 10 historians and experts to fact check all the information.

To ensure authenticity too, costumes, accessories, music and locations were all looked into carefully.

A recent New York Times article attested that “the first Roots got some things wrong.” It quoted Mark M Wolper, an executive producer saying “I’m not being modest here. We have to make it better than the first Roots. Otherwise, why bother?”

It was a gruelling four-month shoot with scenes filmed in Louisiana in the US and South Africa. It employed 192 cast members, 747 crew members and over 5,000 extras.

“Honestly it’s hard to put it into words,” said Page of the the finished product.

“More than anything else, I feel quite overwhelmed. It’s very, very, full-on and demands a lot of the audience. It’s very inspiring. And it reminded me how much it took out of everyone to make it – it was a very, very long and very, very draining shoot – but it was all worth it.”

Roots premieres on May 31 at 10pm on History (Astro Ch 555) and is showcased over four consecutive nights.

It launched with a mission of just five years “to boldly go where no man has gone before” but half a century later Star Trek is a multi-billion-dollar cultural phenomenon adored by fans the world over.

When the show debuted in 1966 the concept was a three-season television show following the crew of the starship Enterprise as they ventured into the galaxy to seek out new civilisations.

Little did NBC know it would snowball into a touchstone in entertainment spawning six shows with a combined 725 episodes and 13 movies, and turning its stars into household names.

“To be talking about the 50th anniversary is insane. I was born the same year that Star Trek was,” veteran filmmaker J.J. Abrams, the creative force behind the new “rebooted” trilogy, told a convention in Hollywood last week.

“I know how old I feel, so the idea that this thing endures is incredible.”

The original series starred William Shatner, now 85, as the suave Captain James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy, who died last year at the age of 83, as his stilted sidekick – a half-human, half-Vulcan science officer named Mr Spock.

Gene Roddenberry wrote the pilot in 1965, the same year as the first US spacewalk, and pitched the show as “a wagon train to the stars,” figuring that westerns were popular in Hollywood at the time.

Fans say Roddenberry examined earthly social issues with an unparalleled sensitivity, presenting television’s first truly multiracial cast, and the first televised interracial kiss.

To seek out new audiences

Korean-American actor John Cho, who plays Starfleet Officer Hikaru Sulu in the rebooted trilogy – including the upcoming 50th anniversary film Star Trek Beyond – describes multiculturalism as one of its “defining features.”

“I really believe theoretically in Star Trek movies. It’s a good cultural product, in my opinion. I wanted to be a part of something I felt was an important, positive cultural contribution,” the 43-year-old said.

The franchise has attracted a devoted global cult unified by their affection for the Roddenberry vision, and today “Trekkies” are the only fan group listed by name in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Karl Urban, who plays ship’s doctor Leonard “Bones” McCoy – the role originally made famous by the late DeForest Kelley – said “Beyond” was more complex and yet more fun than previous episodes.

This is in part thanks to Simon Pegg – engineer Scotty in the reboot series – who was behind numerous British comedy hits including 2004’s Shaun of the Dead and took on scriptwriting duties for Beyond.

“We wanted to make sure we got the balance right between paying respect and homage to what had been before – little inside jokes and references for long-term fans – and making it fresh and delivering new material that new audiences can appreciate,” Urban, 43, said.

The Lord of the Rings and Riddick actor is one of a handful of cast members who describe themselves as having been big fans of the original series.

“I just remember being into it as a kid. There were hot girls in short miniskirts. It was sexy, it was fun,” he said.

“Kirk had this swagger to him, where he was constantly getting it on with aliens of all sorts of different races.”

Part of the enduring appeal of Star Trek, says Urban, is its commitment to a hopeful depiction of a humanity united in the future despite differences in race and creed.

“That, and getting it on with green girls,” he adds immediately.

The latest film hits US theaters on July 22 but, whatever its fortunes, the Star Trek phenomenon will boldly go on, with a new television series due out from January 2017 on CBS in the US.

“It’s been around for 50 years and hopefully we can build something that can continue it for another 50 years,” said Beyond director Justin Lin, an action aficionado who made four of the Fast And Furious films.

“What’s so fun about being a part of this is that, with these characters and themes, we can go anywhere, we can evolve and they are going to run into new challenges. And there should be no boundaries.” – AFP Relaxnews

I happened to catch your film Demolition at a cinema recently, and may I say I was a little disappointed. While it had a good cast, and some memorable scenes, there were a few things about it I did not enjoy. Which is a a shame, as I enjoyed the earlier films you directed, particularly Dallas Buyers Club (2013) and Wild (2014).

Since a large part of your movie revolves around a man writing complaint letters, I thought it was only appropriate that my review also comes in the form of a complaint letter.

Let me first start with the good: the premise of your movie is intriguing. Davis (Jake Gyllenhaal) is an investment banker who seems to have it all: a nice home, a steady lifestyle and a beautiful wife (Heather Lind). Things change, however, after Heather’s unexpected death. While this would devastate anyone, Davis only feels a deep numbness. He realises he has never really loved his wife, and is unhappy with his life.

The opening scenes establishing this are nicely done. I like how your film accentuates this by showing a stone-faced Davis prepare for Julia’s funeral through a montage of swift, silent scenes that flow like a PowerPoint presentation.

This is a man clearly going through the motions, the loss of his wife having the same emotional resonance as a misplaced book or an unexpected thunderstorm. In one memorable scene, he contorts his face in a mirror, desperate to put on an acceptable “grieving” face for the world.

After a brief mishap while trying to buy candy at the hospital, however, Davis writes a letter of complaint, frustrated with the vending machine company. These letters, however, soon turn into the most personal, heartfelt complaint letters in the world, as our man uses them to express what’s on his mind.

Pardon the Nineties reference, but … its hammer time Photo: GSC Movies

These letters attract the attention of Karen (Naomi Watts), the company’s customer service person. She’s a woman also dealing with a multitude of problems, including an unsatisying marriage. She and Davis soon bond, and discover that to begin anew, you sometimes have to completely destroy what you once had. The two soon indulge in whimsical behaviour as they try to make sense of their lives.

And now, the bad. Your movie drags a lot: many of Davis’s attempts at change feel very samey, or come across as quirky for the sake of being quirky. Countless scenes of all this make me wonder what’s the point of all this, if this movie is just an excuse to get Gyllenhaal to do crazy things on camera.

The characters also sometimes grate on the nerves, and it is hard to sustain interest in them. Some of the stuff Davis does is extremely irresponsible, particularly when they involve other people. Davis can be borderline stalker-ish and completely unlikeable, and if not for Gyllenhaal’s charisma, would probably put off most viewers early on.

Some of the wisdom dispensed in his complaint letters also comes across as extremely pretentious, even more so when your film treats them as life-changing advice. “Everything has become a metaphor,” goes one of the film’s lines, resulting in a lot of symbolism – some of it very heavy-handed. Yes, we get that Davis is trying to take apart his life to fix it. We didn’t really need SEVERAL scenes of him literally taking items apart, Sylar-from-Heroes style, to illustrate this.

Let me commend your cast, though. Watts and Cooper are both solid, and Judah Lewis really puts up a hell of a performance as Chris, Karen’s rebellious son. I look forward to seeing more from him in future.

Gyllenhaal, of course, is impeccable as always, watchable whether indulging in gleeful antics or contemplating the emptiness of his life. Watching him destroy stuff with a sledgehammer is exhilarating and, dare I say, slightly erotic. My only complaint about him is that his name is very hard to spell and always sets off my Spellcheck.

All in all, your film is mostly enjoyable, and does feature a cool soundtrack. A shame about the meandering plot and half-baked messages. I would like to ask that you get rid of them in whatever way possible. Might I suggest, through “demolition”? (Just my little joke.)

The second Girls’ Generation member to launch a solo recording career seems to have her sights set on the Billboard charts instead of M! Countdown.

I Just Wanna Dance sees Stephanie Young Hwang – known professionally by the mononym Tiffany – veering away from the conventional K-pop route, opting for sexy shimmering melodies in place of one-two punch hooks and memorable choruses.

That pursuit of K-pop that’s unapologetically American is evident, if not done in excess, on this seven-track collection. In many instances, I Just Wanna Dance’s sonic DNA bears closer resemblance to the likes of Carly Rae Jepsen and Selena Gomez rather than anything from the record’s home market of South Korea.

The ambitious international flavour could be hold against Tiffany’s Californian roots. Surely, the 26-year-old has a better sense of the global pop scene compared to all her Girls’ Generation members put together.

But while the idea of “Americanised” K-pop is beguiling, the mini album spends the majority of its running time trying to emulate instead of innovate.

At its best, the irrepressible What Do I Do – where Tiffany channels R&B diva vibe over lyrics penned by fellow girl group member Choi Sooyoung – sounds like one of Ariana Grande’s weaker numbers. Its corresponding English version isn’t any better, with clunky lyrics set against the track’s syncopated dance beats.

All’s not lost on the West Coast girl’s declaration of artistic independence, though. The trap influences on the seductive Talk is a perfect example of bedroom banger done right. And the tender 90s rhythm and sing-a-long melodies on Fool is a memorable slice of polished R&B.

But much like its relatively low-key titular track and lead single, I Just Wanna Dance as a whole – despite boasting lofty ideals and solid productions – is too safe for its own good.

Tiffany

Vanessa Hudgens in one of the first images from Powerless. Photo: Warner Bros Television

NBC has begun ordering series for the 2016-2017 season by picking up two comedies: Powerless and Trial & Error, Variety has learned.

Powerless is the first-ever DC Comics comedy. Vanessa Hudgens stars as Emily, a spunky young insurance adjuster specialising in regular-people coverage against damage caused by the crime-fighting superheroes. It’s when she stands up to one of these larger-than-life figures that she accidentally becomes a cult “hero” in her own right – even if it’s just to her group of lovably quirky co-workers.

Now, while she navigates her normal, everyday life against an explosive backdrop, Emily might just discover that being a hero doesn’t always require superpowers.

The workplace comedy also stars Alan Tudyk, Danny Pudi and Christina Kirk. Ben Queen wrote the pilot and will exec produce with Michael Patrick Jann who directed the pilot.

John Lithgow (centre) in Trial & Error. Photo: Warner Bros Television

Trial & Error is a fish-out-of-water comedy, starring 3rd Rock From The Sun alum John Lithgow. The series follows a bright-eyed New York lawyer (Nicholas D’Agosto) who heads to a tiny Southern town for his first big case, which is to defend an eccentric “rollercising” poetry professor (Lithgow) who is ccused of the bizarre murder of his beloved wife.

Settling into his makeshift office behind a taxidermy shop and meeting his quirky team of local misfits, the young lawyer suspects that winning his first big case will not be easy, especially when his client is always making himself look guilty.

The comedy also stars The View‘s Sherri Shepherd, Steven Boyer, Krysta Rodriguez and Jayma Mays. Jeff Astrof and Matt Miller are writers and exec producers, and Jeffrey Blitz is director.

Both shows hail from Warner Bros Television. Trial & Error also comes from Barge Productions and Good Session Productions.

TVB and Astro recently launched a new package known as TVB Jade Pack, and engaged several TVB stars for the promotional activities in Malaysia. Star2.com took the opportunity to catch up with some gossip on some of our favourite TVB stars.

Benjamin Yuen, Tony Hung, and Grace Chan, were prodded by media to reveal their marriage plans.

While trying to assist his workmates Chan and Hung in evading media’s questions about their relationships, Yuen inadvertently revealed that he had been living with his girlfriend for quite some time.

The 35-year-old winner of Mr Hong Kong 2007 has been dating Jennifer Shum, 27, Miss Photogenic of the 2012 Miss Hong Kong Pageant, for two years and has said that she is his ideal marriage partner.

It was recently rumoured that Hung, 32, had proposed a live-in arrangement with his girlfriend Natalie Tong, 35, but she said no. When asked about the rumours, Hung admitted: “I hope to move towards this stage.” The two met on the set of 2014 TVB romantic drama Rear View Mirror, and reportedly started dating then.

The 24-year-old Chan reportedly started dating 46-year-old fellow TVB actor Kevin Cheng after they met on the set of TVB supernatural drama Blue Veins. Chan played coy and successfully evaded most of the questions about her relationship. But, the Hong Kong-born Canadian actress, and winner of both the 2013 Miss Hong Kong and the 2014 Miss Chinese International Pageant titles, shared that she is serious about her relationship with Cheng and wants to get married in Canada and raise her kids there.

Dubbed the Rumour Queen by gossip rags in Hong Kong, the 25-year-old Sisley Choi has been rumoured to be with a whole list of Hong Kong artistes: Him Law, Ruco Chan, Adrian Chau, Mak Chau Sing, Tony Hung, etc.

However, the first runner-up of the 2013 Miss Hong Kong Pageant, has refuted all the rumours. “All the rumours are just that; they are not real. I like making friends and I just hope to film more dramas,” said the former beauty queen who stars in four TVB drama series this year: Speed Of Life, Fashion War, Accident, Peculiar Taste.

Zowie, it’s Bowie Wu. – Filepic

Who knows how Wu Fung became known as Bowie Who? Not many people do. In fact, even the veteran entertainer himself did not. When asked about it, the 84-year-old Hong Kong star, whose real name is Wu Kai-Sau, confessed that he was just as perplexed as to the origins of the name.

“People used to asked me whether I had an English name. I would say yes, it’s Wu Fung. Then, someone told me that there were people who were saying that my name was Bowie. I tried to trace the origins, but couldn’t find the source. And it spread so fast that people from Singapore, Malaysia and America were all calling me Bowie. So, I had no choice but to go with it.”

It all started when Kilafairy followed her mum to a TV set one day. Her mother, popular 1980s singer Rohana Jalil, was paying a visit to her friend, celebrity chef Jaafar Onn, who was filming on the set.

“While waiting for her, a cameraman asked me to stand in front of the camera to mark something,” she recalls the beginnings of her showbiz career.

“As it was a KRU production, that tape was brought back to KRU Studios. I think abang Norman (Abdul Halim) saw the tape and asked, ‘Who’s this girl?’ He then asked me to come in and film an episode of a musical drama.”

Shortly after, the then 18-year-old signed with KRU Studios for a year where she starred in her first film, the 2011 horror flick, Karak.

Kilafairy says she never thought of pursuing a showbiz career until that fateful day actually, although she often sang at corporate dinners.

“I didn’t plan to be in this industry at all, I wanted to be a businesswoman,” says the now 24-year-old who has a degree in fashion marketing and management.

Since then, Kilafairy, whose real name is Syakila Nisa Jahangir Khan, has starred in numerous drama series such as Saiful Nita and Cinta Agra. Recently, she’s been getting more attention for her musical talents too.

“I didn’t plan to be in this industry at all, I wanted to be a businesswoman.”

After recording Warna Cinta, the Bahasa Malaysia-language version of Gerua – which is featured on the 2015 Bollywood film, Dilwale – Shah Rukh Khan, who stars in the film alongside Kajol, tweeted: “Thank u sounds good.”

“Even with just those four words, my life is complete,” says a grateful Kilafairy in an interview with Star2 at Menara Star, Petaling Jaya. “It means he took the time to listen to it.”

Discover more about Kilafairy as she shares about her new single, Setia, the meaning behind her unique name and growing up with a famous mum.

Since I was five, I was crazy about Peter Pan. Up until I was 14, I would wait for Peter Pan to come to my window so much so that my dad built a bench for me by the window.

My sister called me Tinkerbell at first. I told her, “I’m not Tinkerbell. No, Peter hates her.” So she called me Kilafairy. (“Kila” is taken from her name Syakila and “fairy” from the fairytale which sees its protagonist interacting with faeries and other mythical creatures.)

From then on, even at school, all my friends called me Kilafairy. When I entered the industry, I didn’t want to use my full name as I wanted to have a bit of privacy. So my friend suggested I go with Kilafairy.

2. What are your musical influences and how did you come to record Setia?

I love R&B, hip-hop and soul music. I was born a universal listener. I listened to all kinds of music as a kid, but R&B just caught me.

The lyrics and how they sing it … they sing it from the soul. I love Beyonce, Jhene Aiko, Travis Scott, Jeremih and Usher.

I wanted my first single to be R&B but as we’re trying to get into the market, it’s hard to sell R&B here. Setia is a ballad and I love ballads too. Even my mum says I should do ballads as it suits me.

People think that I got into this industry because of my mum, that they don’t know that I’ve been working very hard.

3. You have a telemovie coming up where you spoke in the Kelantan dialect. What was that like?

Mek Kelate is about these three friends trying to open a business. I play like the big sister to these two other girls. They’re from Kelantan and they’re trying to sell Kelantanese food in Kuala Lumpur. And so we have to speak Kelantanese.

My dad is from a part of Terengganu nearing the border of Kelantan. My cousins speak Kelantanese. I can too, but not as good as my dad. I have a bit of foundation in it so it wasn’t too difficult.

4. Do you see having a famous mum as an advantage or a disadvantage to your career?

It’s both. The disadvantage is people think that I got into this industry because of my mum, that they don’t know that I’ve been working very hard.

But I focus more on the positive side, which is, I get to learn a lot (from my mother) compared to other artistes who are new, who may not know how the industry works or how to interact with the media.

I’ve gotten comments from senior reporters who have said that I am able to speak and mingle well with them.

5. What qualities do you look for in your dream man?

Someone who doesn’t smoke. Someone who respects his elders. Someone who’s funny, a gentleman and manly – like a mixture of Thor and Iron Man (laughs). Thor is manly and gentlemanly but not funny. Iron Man is funny and a gentleman.

If Troye Sivan looks somewhat familiar to you, maybe it’s because you’ve seen him before, with claws, in an X-Men movie.

Sivan starred as a young James Howlett in X-Men Origins: Wolverine back in 2009, playing essentially a much younger version of fellow Australian Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. Does he look back on that role and think, “Hmm, maybe I could replace Jackman one day?”

“That would be awesome. I would love to do that one day!” the 20-year-old Australian singer-songwriter said with a laugh, during a phone interview from Denmark, where he was on tour.

These days, of course, Sivan is better known as a musician, albeit one whose first full-length album, Blue Neighbourhood, debuted at No. 7 of the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart when it was released last December.

“I didn’t expect it to do so well. I was pleasantly surprised with the reviews and what people said about the album. For me, it was important that people liked what I was doing,” said Sivan.

The reviews for Blue Neighbourhood have certainly been quite positive, with The Guardian praising him for “capturing the sound of now so well”, and AllMusic calling him “fearless and honest in a way other pop stars are not”.

According to Sivan, all the acclaim has been gratifying, and vindicating. “When I set out, my main goal was to be genuine and real. I didn’t want to let anyone shape me into what they want me to be, like many of the young artistes out there,” he said, adding that the time he took to write the songs in Blue Neighbourhood really helped him form his own musical style.

“I took my time to write the album and let my true self really come out. I wrote it in a year and a half, and I had the time to figure out who I really am.”

Born Troye Sivan Mellet in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1995, his parents moved to Australia when he was two. Sivan began his musical career in 2006, and released his debut EP, Dare To Dream, in 2008. He followed that up with 2014’s TRXYE (which debuted at No. 1 on iTunes in over 55 countries) and last September’s Wild EP, before finally releasing Blue Neighbourhood last December.

Yup, that’s Sivan as a young Wolverine in 2009s X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Although he had quite an acting career in the earlier part of his career, he is putting acting on hold while he pursues his musical career.

“Acting is one of the things that is not at the top of my priority list right now,” said Sivan, who was also the star of the popular Spud film trilogy back in South Africa.

“Between acting and music, I prefer music. It’s more fulfilling for me, because I can be more involved in it. I’m involved in the production, the songwriting, and of course, performing live.”

Sivan also has a strong following on social media, with over 3.82 million Twitter followers and over four million subscribers to his YouTube channel, where he also posts a video blog. For all his popularity on these platforms however, he doesn’t deem it necessary for a musician to be social media savvy.

“Look at Beyonce (who has 14.4 million Twitter followers but has posted a grand total of nine times since 2009) … Yes, it makes things easier in some ways, and lets us connect with fans, but I don’t think it’s essential at all,” he said.

Sivan’s schedule is pretty much full for the rest of the year – he is currently on a global tour to promote the album. Plus he will be performing at this Sunday’s Billboard Music Awards as well, an opportunity that he calls “life-changing”.

Beyond that, however, he doesn’t know what the future holds for him just yet. “Maybe after this year, I’ll have to haul myself up and go back to the studio and start writing again,” he mused.

Astro’s latest telemovie is a stark departure from its usual light-hearted romantic offerings.

Hey Orang Kita takes viewers into the lives of four young individuals living in a flat in Kuala Lumpur. One of them is Hartini, a runaway played by independent singer-songwriter Takahara Suiko (aka The Venopian Solitude). Her character suffers from physical abuse at the hands of her own husband.

Musician Christian Palencia’s character tries to suppress memories of being beaten up by his own mother, while Lilian (singer Talitha Tan) is in denial over a friend taking her for granted. There’s also Hassan (beatboxer Raja Syahiran) who is forced to rob houses to make a living.

Hey Orang Kita the telemovie picks up from a four-part web series that debuted on Feefo.TV in March.

“Sometimes you do stories for commercial reasons. But with Hey Orang Kita, it’s a story worth telling,” he said during an interview in Kuala Lumpur.

Writer and director Zara Kahan shared that she had the idea for Hey Orang Kita for seven years. Inspired by personal stories of people she knew, Zara wanted Hey Orang Kita to get viewers out of their comfort zone.

“I remember when we did the table reading for the script, people around me just went silent. Then someone said: ‘Are you sure about this scene? Because (the viewers) won’t like it…’,” she said.

Hartini (Takahara Suiko, left) cannot shake off the trauma of being abused by her husband as housemate Lilian (Talitha Tan) tries to help. Photo: Astro

Zara was referring to a scene where Hartini begins to hallucinate and listens to a radio playing the sounds of punches and kicking. That moment supposedly reminds Hartini of her abuse.

“I don’t mind if people don’t like it. I want people to feel uncomfortable and have that image stick in their head,” she said.

Hey Orang Kita drives home the fact that abuse is made worst by the indifference to the plight of victims. Zara said though the media often pick up stories about abuse, not much is being done to help those in need.

“People offer remarks like ‘Oh, so pitiful…’ and move along. I think we need to understand that we can all play a part in educating one another about abuse. I also want abusers to feel ashamed. There is no gray area when it comes to people who abuse their loved ones in any form. That person is the villain.”

Hey Orang Kita does have some lively moments as the drama is part musical. However, don’t expect the characters to just break out into a huge song-dance number ala Glee. Zara got local musician Loque (of band MonoloQue) to rearrange songs from Rahimah Rahim, Wings, Feminin, Meet Uncle Hussain and Hujan for the characters to sing.

She was also inspired by her group of first-time actors, all of whom harbour dreams to make it as credible musicians. In fact, she said bits and pieces of their personalities went into the making of her characters.

Christian noted that his character is very much like him. “I play myself, you know the awkward Sabahan boy who can’t seem to interact with anyone,” he said.

Syahiran shared that the cast bonded over their love for music: “The chemistry happened just like that. We had so much fun with each other on set that we didn’t treat it like work.”

Zara noted that when her cast worked together for the music telemovie, magic happened.

With the passion and enthusiasm of the young individuals reflected on screen, Khairul said Hey Orang Kita is more than just a drama.

“It’s a reflection of our youth and what they have to do to achieve their aspirations.”

Fans of the cult series Mad Men will have the opportunity to buy items from the show at an online auction on June 1 via ScreenBid.

Lionsgate is auctioning off more than 1,500 items from its Emmy-winning retro drama Mad Men, giving fans the chance to have their own little piece of the series. This is not the first time items will be sold through the auction format, the show has ben selling their props via bids since back in 2010 when they organised an auction through eBay for cancer charity City of Hope.

What objects are up for auction?

Don Draper’s office at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, part of Matthew Weiner’s Mad Men exhibit, is seen at the Museum of the Moving Image. Photo: AFP

Likely to be among the most popular items are those of lead character Don Draper: his wallet, orange visitor chairs, engagement ring to Betty and even his iconic 1964 Chrysler Imperial convertible. In last year’s sale on ScreenBid, Don’s 1965 Cadillac Coupe DeVille was sold for US$48,980 (slightly over RM200,000).

Peggy Olson’s blue SC&P typewriter is likely to be in high demand from collectors, and Joan Harris’s office ice bucket and tumbler set should also prove popular.

An intriguing item on the list is Stan Rizzo’s notepad, complete with sketches.

All the items are curated by Mad Men property master Ellen Freund, with some having returned from being displayed at the “Matthew Weiner’s Mad Men” exhibition Museum of the Moving Image in New York last year as well as during Modernism Week 2016.

A preview of some of the items up for auction is available on the ScreenBid website. All items purchased will be accompanied with a Certificate of Authenticity from Lionsgate. – AFP/Relaxnews

Once, he was visiting a shopping mall in the United States when he spotted an impressive domino line. It had taken about a month for the organisers to set up the long line of dominoes which spanned three stories high.

Aiman, who was 13 then, says he always had a penchant for feeling objects with interesting textures.

“I didn’t want to push the dominoes, I just wanted to touch one of the pieces. I wanted to know how its surface felt,” the now 27-year-old actor recalls in an interview with Star2 at Menara Star, Petaling Jaya.

“I touched it and the domino pieces fell, like all three stories of it.”

The incident cost him (or rather, his parents) a US$3,000 fine.

While it has definitely gotten him into trouble before, perhaps it is this same sense of curiosity that led Aiman to dabble in a number of diverse career fields.

“It all started at the neighbourhood field,” he shares the beginnings of his football career. “I was five, I was too young, I couldn’t play. So I started out as a ball picker for the older teens. Then one day, they asked me to play.”

Before he knew it, he was part of the school team and made it to the district, state and national level, even competing internationally in numerous football youth championships.

Unfortunately, a leg injury brought Aiman’s football dreams to a halt.

“I had to decide whether I wanted to study or play football. During that time, football wasn’t really paying well. So I thought why don’t I study first while waiting for my leg to heal, and then play football.”

While studying, Aiman acted in commercials and modelled. Photo: The Star/Yap Chee Hong

Aiman pursued an accounting degree at a private institution. “I love numbers. That was the only thing I was good at in school,” he offers, before cheekily adding, “I was good at History but I wrote my own (version of) history.”

While studying, Aiman modelled and acted in commercials in his free time. On a resume he submitted to a talent agency, he included singing as one of his hobbies. Little did he know, the talent agency was managed by the wife of popular 1980s rock singer Rahim Maarof.

He was encouraged to audition for the fifth season of reality singing competition Mentor. Aiman, who always had a passion for music, decided to give it a shot and was chosen to become Rahim’s protege.

Aiman, who didn’t make it through to the show’s finals, reveals he had a challenging time on the show as his musical style couldn’t quite fit into the show’s mould.

“Still, it was a good learning process. I learned a lot. And at least, I got the chance to feel what it was like to be on stage,” he says.

After his stint on Mentor in 2011, Aiman got a call from director Erma Fatima, asking if he wanted to be a part of her upcoming drama.

“I thought why not? So I acted in my first drama and she told me how I could improve. From then on, other productions started to take me on and then I got offered the lead role in Vanila Coklat.”

Aiman’s showbiz career took off through this TV3 drama; his popularity cemented when he won Best New Artiste at the Anugerah Bintang Popular Bintang Harian in 2013.

Since then, Aiman has settled down comfortably in acting with lead roles in Diandra, Projek Memikat Suami, Selamat Pengantin Madu and Sesal Separuh Nyawa to name a few.

Aiman plays IT graduate Alif who runs a transportation business to make ends meet during an economic downturn in Demi Cinta Ain.

The actor currently stars in Demi Cinta Ain, which he says is more than just a love story. “What happens when the economy is down? What happens to you? To your family? To the society?” he shares the drama’s themes.

In the series, IT graduate Alif (Aiman) can’t get a job due to the bad economy and resorts to purchasing a lorry to run a transportation business. The business doesn’t quite take off, and pressured by the pile up of his wife’s medical bills (she was recently diagnosed with cancer), he is forced to commit robbery, landing him in prison.

Aiman admits playing the role was quite a challenge, shaving his head to get a better understanding of the character put behind bars.

Next up, the actor will be making his film debut with Kimchi Untuk Awak, a romantic comedy which sees more than half of its production shot in South Korea. Directed by Michael Ang, Aiman plays part-Korean, part-Malay Daniel Lee.

Slated for release early next year, filming is currently underway. The actor shares his experience on the film set so far.

“Because the screen is so big, you have to act ‘smaller’ or softer compared to TV,” he says of the subtle differences between acting on film and TV.

Another difference is film’s greater attention to the details.“For example, if you just lift up a hand in one shot, your hand must remain at the exact height for the next few shots. You may be able to get away with things like that on TV but not on film.”

Viewers will also be seeing Aiman in a horror film, directed by Ombak Rindu’s Osman Ali, where he plays an orang bunian (bogeyman) who gets its strength from kidnapping and killing women.

While he has left his football dreams behind (he plays football as a hobby now), he wants to venture into music again in the future.

“I miss singing a lot, I want to make a comeback,” he says. Aiman has written a few songs and hopes to record them. He even has plans to build a studio and hire a team.

“Even as a kid, I realised I like to do a lot of things like football and singing. This boils down to just wanting to show more of myself,” he talks about becoming a multi-hyphenate artiste. The handsome Aiman is also the face of a skincare brand.

“My idol is P. Ramlee. He can sing, act, write, compose and play lots of instruments. I want to become like him, but in my own way.”

Before she finally broke through last year, singer-songwriter Tori Kelly had tried everything. When she was in grade school, she appeared on televised talent competitions like Star Search and America’s Most Talented Kid.

As a teenager, she wiped out on American Idol Season 9 early on, after Simon Cowell told her – crushingly at the time – that her voice was “almost annoying.”

In between, there was a major-label deal that fell apart when Kelly was 12 (she’s now 23). A viral YouTube cover of Frank Ocean’s Thinkin Bout You helped draw the attention of manager Scooter Braun, who had turned fellow YouTube sensation Justin Bieber into a star.

Her next big-label deal stuck and Kelly released her major-label debut, the polished-but-soulful pop album Unbreakable Smile, last summer.

The album entered the charts at No. 2, and earned Kelly a Best New Artiste Grammy nomination (she lost to Meghan Trainor).

In a recent phone interview, Kelly, who was raised in Temecula, California, talked about meeting Prince, facing down Cowell, and coming up the hard way. The following are excerpts from that conversation.

On meeting Prince late last year:

I had played the same venue two years in a row in Minneapolis. (The first year), Prince’s band came, and the next year they wanted to come again, and bring Prince.

By then, I’d gotten pretty close to his band, (but) I didn’t believe it. Everyone was like, “We put Prince on guests lists all the time, and he never shows up. Don’t get your hopes up.”

We decided to do a Prince cover, and he literally walked in right when we started playing Kiss. He stayed for a couple of songs, then he left.

To make it even more surreal, we all (went to) Paisley Park after, and we kind of hung out all night, and I got to talk to him for a minute and a half.

He was so sweet, and so welcoming into his space. It was something I’ll never forget.

On whether losing those childhood singing competitions sapped her love of music:

I did TV shows because I loved to sing. I didn’t care about the business at all. I went into the industry when I was 12 years old. I had my first record deal, and whether I liked it or not, I had to learn about the business side of things.

I’m actually really grateful that deal didn’t work out, and that I got to step away from the industry and be an independent artist around 15 or 16. There was a point that I lost the fun of it all. You’ve gotta be a businesswoman sometimes, but at the end of the day, if you’re not loving it, I question why you’re still doing it.

On her televised run-in with Simon Cowell:

That definitely helped (me develop) a thick skin, for sure, once you hear something like that. It’s the ones that weren’t on TV, the small meetings where it really hurt as a kid, and people weren’t understanding what I had to offer. Those were the ones that shaped me the most as a performer, and gave me more layers to my songwriting, to everything.

On the life-changing meeting where Braun told her everything that was wrong with her:

When you put it that way, it sounds pretty mean. But it was me and my manager, one on one.

We have these talks where we go into what people are saying, and he told me he was hearing things within the industry.

His peers were questioning me: “She’s kind of plain.” “She’s vanilla.” “What are you going to do with her?”

It took me back to that little girl who was so insecure. It put a fire under me, for sure. I felt like I had something to prove. At the same time, I felt, why should I have to prove anything?

Ace Young. Now that’s a name that may be consigned to the history books, but for one bright, shining moment in the annals of American Idol, a young singer, who scraped through much of the earlier rounds, pulled out all the stops with a stunning version of Father Figure.

The writer and singer of the original, George Michael, was truly past his prime by then and was barely making a dent in record sales or airplay, but that rendition by Young elicited an uncharacteristically enthusiastic response from head judge Simon Cowell. Young was average, but the power and beauty of the track made it a huge talking point.

In fact, that entire album, which spawned Father Figure, is a funk-driven, R&B pop nugget, one of a clutch of albums which made an indelible mark on pop music the year it came out – 1987. Of course, the song that got everyone initially tapping their fingers and stomping their feet to was the second single and title track, Faith, which in retrospect, may not be the best representation of the album.

George Michael was a great songwriter in the 1980s, but his credentials may have been weighed down by the output of his previous band, pinup wonder Wham!, though tunes like Careless Whisper and Everything She Wants hinted at a great degree of sophistication.

But typical of the singer in his post-Wham! days of courting controversy, the album announced its arrival with the racy I Want Your Sex (Parts 1 & 2). Not surprisingly, the title was a source of contention, offending adults who had little time to delve into the subject matter of the song, which among other things, describes sex as a natural act – and the song also promoted monogamy, a point seemingly lost on prudes.

The album was Michael’s sonic canvas, and with it, he painted a multitude of shades, and tackled a variety of subjects: The dissolution of a relationship (Look At Your Hands), addiction (Monkey), apprehension in love (One More Try) and more.

He even played most of the music on the album himself, but the standout facet of the album, was how brilliantly he sang the songs. There’s emotion, there are vocal chops … and an exquisite sense of melody links everything seamlessly. The album didn’t stay on the Billboard charts at No.1 for 12 weeks for nothing.

Faith did so because the album spawned four No.1 songs – Faith, Father Figure, One More Try and Monkey, all of which ultimately earned Michael the Album of the Year gong at the 1989 Grammy Awards, a fitting tribute to an incomparable pop masterpiece.

Even crooner Michael Buble wanted a piece of the pie when he covered the loungy Kissing A Fool, though Limp Bizkit’s crack at Faith produced less-than-flattering results.

The cassette of the album I had was my brother’s, and I recall lending it to a buddy at some point in the late 1980s. Some months after, I asked him to return it, but he feebly told me that he couldn’t find the cassette … he only had the hardshell case. Some months after that, he returned the cassette and cover. The paper label on the cassette clearly looked like it had been in contact with water, and that was when he sheepishly told me that it had fallen into his fish tank and was among his fishes for a couple of months.

Moral of the story? Even the fish wanted to listen to George Michael then. And guess what? The cassette still plays fine today. Like the music, it has stood the test of time.